Last week I reported on my visit (actually a second return visit) to Nashville Nightmare, the Music City’s premiere haunted attraction, for their special Valentine’s Day event “Love Bites,” focusing on vampires. I swear ever since I’ve had the song by Def Leppard stuck in my head. And speaking of that song…
If you grew up in the 80s or even into the 90s, chances are that you heard the dire warning from some church group or some parents’ group that Def Leppard collectively were Satanists out to steal your soul, just like every other Rock band in the world. Unlike all those other bands, though, who resorted to backmasking their nefarious messages, Def Leppard came right out and admitted it! If you let the song “Love Bites” paly all the way through, you can clearly hear the lead singer mutter “Jesus of Nazareth, go to Hell!” I listened to it—and I heard it! Or I thought* I heard it. I heard what I’d been told to *expect* to hear.
What lead singer Joe Elliot actually says is “Yes it does. Bloody Hell!” As in, yes, love does indeed bite. Makes more sense that way, doesn’t it? But sense had nothing to do with the “Satanic Panic” of the 80s.